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The Williams floormetal is inexpensive. At one point they didn't have any inletting draft. From what I gather that is how Winchester ordered it. As a stockmaker, I would charge a customer to file the proper draft on it before inletting it into his spendy English Walnut blank. Some of the Sunny Hill stuff needs draft filed behind the mag box. Unless the smith and client don't care about minor gaps. I'm not sure if Williams stuff still doesn't have any draft. In a drop in application for a plastic stock or factory stock the lack of draft wouldn't be a problem. So the money spent for the extra operation of putting draft on it might not be necessary



Our entire bottom metal line has a complete and uninterrupted 2 deg. draft around the entire perimeter of the guard, which was only possible to do correctly with a true one-piece.

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Williams offers vibratory polishing as a standard and hand polishing as an upgrade. The time spent polishing and the methods used determine the level of finish as well as the price of the product.


We do use a vibratory finish for our in-the-white models to some extent, but the inside-the-bow latch must be polished by hand in order to match it perfectly to the guard bow.

In the picture below you'll notice that the guard and floorplate have been polished, but the sides have the vibratory finish on them.
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On his website Williams offers an upgrade "polished and blued" for $34. And for $34 I don't think the level of polish would match what can be attained spending most of a day trying to do the best possible job on every surface. It's not even a fair comparison.


I think if we're going to do a "fair comparison", we should not be talking apples and oranges either.....
The level of polish that you speak of is not being delivered by any bottom metal maker, regardless of price, unless they are completing the entire custom rifle themselves.
You simply cannot completely finish a bottom metal correctly, until it has been inletted into a stock, where the bottom metal and stock are finished as a complete unit. To say nothing of a receiver's finish that must match the bottom metal in the final assembly.
Unlike our competitors, you will have virtually no tool marks of any kind to remove and the final luster is all that needs to be obtained. The holes are crisp and not washed out and if you choose a bead blast finish, or to matte rust blue the bottom metal, 99% of your work is done for you.

Our polished and blued upgrade is not intended to provide the highest luster possible that would require someone to spend the better part of a day obtaining. What we do is simply give a finish that will closely match a factory rifle finish that is closer to Winchester's Super Grade models, though it has always proven to have a higher luster than that.
There are many folks out there that don't have an endless budget for making good upgrades to their rifles, so they order them already blued. Sometimes they lack the knowledge or funds to blue themselves, or they don't have the money to pay a gunsmith to charge them 3 times at a minimum of what we can offer right out of the box.

Blackburn has a notable difference in their bow design, but it's not copyrighted.........

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While some will place my bottom metal in the "cheap" category, or consider it simply a good value, I'll place my in-the-white bottom metal alongside any of our competitor's models and I guarantee that you'll have less time in bringing ours up to that high luster finish than you will theirs.

I've yet to begin polishing a part for shipment that didn't come straight off my machine with a better finish than has been offered by my competitors as a finished product. We also happen to be one of only two manufacturers at this point that even offer a "blued model" at any price.

I'm not going to tell someone they're paying too much for bottom metal, but I'd have a hard time having someone who's worked for me in the past tell me that they were going to spend a day polishing one guard and charging me $350.00 to do it.

What other bottom metal makers do that will drive up additional costs is the integral box, but that can be a real can of worms at the very least. I've made them, used them, and wouldn't use them again. They are far more trouble than any minute amount of benefit they may or may not add. Are they more robust?? Sure, but how robust must a bottom metal be? Do they improve function? Sometimes, but they can also be a very expensive paper weight. What happens if you decided to change your 30-06 to a 375 H&H??? Remember that $500.00 you spent on bottom metal? Well, get ready to do it again.
Leaving the box out of the equation gives the gunsmith or end user much more versatility on cartridge and bullet selection within a given cartridge. The only item that you're truly sacraficing is the extra weight of the integral box and nothing more. Not to say that the factory magazine boxes are the cure-all, because they definitely are not and could stand improvement in material selection, as well as strength and thickness, but I would take any of them hands down on any rifle I would own over an integral box.
The purest simply believe that it must be integral or you're taking a "shortcut", but the truth of the matter is, while the original intent was to lessen the costs, the major manufacturers discovered a better mouse trap in the process. The same is true for Model 70 triggers, safeties, and the Model 70/03 Springfield barrel breaching systems. Sure, one can argue back and forth about which one is better, but the above modifications that have come along since the Mauser 98 have proven themselves all over the world as being amongst the most dependable features available on a rifle, while keeping costs below that of a Mauser clone.

My bottom metal has made it into the hands of the finest custom rifle makers in the country and has been on display more than a few times at the tables of the Guild Show, so if you think that you're taking the cheap route........Think again.